Forever behind them
by Locke1
Summary: What if your are all alone in what you believe, and because of this, you are dragged down into a path you don't want to take? A girl is about to find out what will happen if that happens


Ranma stared at the water from the bridge that it runs beneath.

The sun was setting slowly, giving the water a reddish tint. Waves rolled, and crashed, as the river continued to run its course into the sea. Ranma just sighed as he watched all this. Taking out a rock from his pocket that he has picked up before he got to the bridge, he dropped it into the river, watching it dive into the small waves. The noise of the cars behind him drowned out whatever noise the rock made as it hit the water.

Ranma sighed again and shook his head, "Not enough. Never enough…"

Turning around, he was surprised to see a girl staring at him, "Yes?"

"Ranma?"

"Yuki right?" Ranma blinked and scratched his head, "Your one of Akane's friends."

Yuki nodded, "Were you going to…"

"Jump?" Ranma finished for her, "Naw, I don't like losing anything. My life is one of those things I don't like losing, although, if I don't have a choice, I won't mind."

The girl stared at Ranma, "Why?"

Ranma smiled sadly and turned back, staring into the river once again, "That's why, there's never enough."

Yuki frowned and walked up beside Ranma, joining him as he stared into the river, "Not enough what?"

Ranma shook his head, "Let me tell you about someone named Ranma Saotome…"

* * *

Another ficcy by me 'cause I can't seem to finish my other fics

**Forever behind them**

Disclaimer: You know, it's been a while since I put one of these up in my fics, I should at least put one up here just to cover myself ; Yeah, I don't own these guys, just borrowing them. Hey, I don't get paid for this, so even if you sue me all you can get out of it is a maximum of 10 dollars, Canadian dollars at that!

* * *

"Do you know what it's like to be brought up by honor?" Ranma whispered softly. The cars behind the two continue to speed pass the two teens drowning out almost every other noise other than they're own.

"What do you mean?"

"My father will do anything to save his own hide," Ranma said, "but when it comes down to teaching me, he'll always teach honor and our art to me. I can't follow what my father did, so I followed his teachings. I followed the teachings of honor and our art. So in truth, while my father gave me just enough food to eat, everything I know, everything I believe in, were just the first few words that came out of his mouth. The code of honor that he believes that I should hold up, those were the only words that I will ever follow from his mouth."

"Then, doesn't that mean you were taught by him? So you're brought up by your father." Yuki countered.

"That's the sad thing, those words weren't even his own." Ranma said with a soft chuckle, he just read them out of a scroll, generic words from any martial arts teacher to his students that all masters know, what everyone takes as a given." Ranma turned his head to look at the girl beside him, "But somehow, those simply words that everyone seem to take as a given has become a way of life for me."

"What are they? The words I mean."

"To never strike out in anger, to never use these to harm, but to use them to protect those who can not protect themselves, that's the most important one of those." Ranma snorted, "And by following these, what do I get? Endless rivals that are out to defeat me for 'slighting' their honor, fiancées that hit me, and abuse me knowing I can never hit them, and to risk my life, my being, to uphold my honor just so I can be thrown right back to were I started, with endless rivals and hits I can never defend against."

Cars behind the two teens started to thin as the sun sets even further into the horizon. Yuki stares at Ranma in wonderment, "Then why do you keep it? Codes can be changed, qualifiers can be added. You don't have to suffer through it if you don't to."

"Never enough…" Ranma whispered, "Do you know why I don't change the codes that I held? Do you know why I don't put new qualifiers into the code that I already follow? I don't because if I changed it, my honor, everything I did to uphold my honor in the past will mean nothing. Honor is not meant to be changed. That is why honor is so looked up upon. It is hard to be honorable."

"But as long as your honorable, it doesn't really matter how you do it right?"

Ranma shook his head, "Honor isn't an end. It is a path. You don't walk the path TO honor, but walk the path OF honor. People don't understand it any longer. Not even those people who preach it. Honor is a way of life, it is a path set for those who would follow it so they will be good and just. It doesn't make the playing field even so that those who are weaker have a chance of winning, but it sets a limit for those who are stronger, so they will not become corrupted by the power that they have."

Growling in frustration, Ranma slams his fist against the metal railing of the bridge, making it vibrate, "Then there are those who would manipulate honor so they will come out on top. Those are the worst people that I've met. Those are the people that I true wish I do not know, yet, sadly enough, I will never get rid of them and come out honorably."

Yuki took a step back nervously, "R-ranma?"

"Sorry…" Ranma mumbled before staring at the river again, "It's just that so many people accuse me of being dishonorable directly or indirectly, when it is them that are dishonorable. But then again, it might not be that far from the truth."

"That is NOT true Ranma!" Yuki disagreed suddenly, "If you can explain something like honor so clearly like you did for me just now, you must understand it, and even you said you followed it! You are NOT dishonorable!"

Ranma smiled sadly, "Thank you, I think I needed to hear that, even if it's from a person I don't really know that well. But with all the things that happen around me, I'm not sure if I can ever retain my entire honor again. Promises made that I must keep, but chips away at my honor if I don't break it. More promises that I can never fulfill because if I did, other promises will be broken, and finally, consequences of my own actions that I can never shake off because of a group of people's definition of honor is different from that of mine. Do you really think I can hold my honor when all these things slowly eat away at it?"

Yuki bit her lip, "I'm sorry…"

"It's not your fault," Ranma said, his voice echoed through the now empty bridge. The sun has already set beneath the horizon, yet, the moon never raised, only the stars twinkled in the dark sky, "To tell the truth, I think it's my own fault for even swearing to follow the path that I've taken. Now, all I am doing is slowly following all my rivals down the path towards dishonor, slowly. Forever behind them, yet never catching up, and they'll continue to drag me down that path, because I can't do anything to stop them."

Ranma looked up into the sky, "It's getting late; you should get back home before your parents start worrying about you too much."

Yuki nodded carefully, "I think I should be going then."

Just as Yuki started to walk away, Ranma stopped her, "Hey, don't tell anyone about today, and don't expect to see me like this anytime soon. After all, I'm just a chauvinistic jerk of a fiancée right?"

Yuki watched Ranma as he grinned arrogantly at nothing, "Sure."

"At least now, I know someone out there knows, even if they don't believe in it," Ranma said loudly, "Still not enough though…"

"No, not just not enough Ranma, your really one of a kind, maybe the last." Yuki whispered to herself before heading back to her home.

* * *

I can't seem to crunch out another chapter of any of my other fics out. Perhaps I'm not in the mood of any of them, or maybe I do have ideas but I just don't know I have them yet? It doesn't matter really, for those of you who read those said other fics of mine, I'd apologize for not crunching out another chapter, but I can't really help it…. So… yeah. Hope you like this little short fic.

On a side note, you know, for a person who said I don't like one shots, I'm writing a lot of them…. Just a thought …


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